Despite the fact that myself and everyone else acting like they know what lays ahead are proven wrong time and time again, we continue to make predictions about the future. It makes us feel like we have some control, when we don’t. The world is too complex, too big, too corrupt, too lost in theories and delusions, and too dependent upon too many leaders with too few brains to be able to predict what will happen next. Jim Quinn

Prize winners of the
 week:
CHFJPY 2.44  EURJPY 2.43 XAGJPY  2.37%
month:
EURXAG 13.80 CHFXAG 13.58 GBPXAG 12.91%
and drum rolls ... winners of the year 2012 are:

XAGJPY 21.46 XAUJPY 18.59 NZDJPY 17.76%

XAGCHF: - 7.22  XAGEUR: - 7.21 NZDCHF: - 2.77%

XAGCHF: -4.18 XAGEUR: -4.18  XAGNZD: - 4.01 %.

NZDCAD: 2.48  NZDCHF: 2.19  CADXAG:  1.64%

EURXAU: 2.26 CHFXAU: 2.20 EURXAG: 2.08 %

XAGJPY: 6.82   XAGUSD: 5.42  XAGCAD: 4.42%

CHFJPY:  2.59  XAUCHF:  -1.34  XAGCHF: -1.20

10.11.12 XAGNZD: 6.69%

3.11.12 XAGAUD:  -9.22%

27 oct NZDCHF.  1.59%

13.10 XAGAUD  -3.51% 

in gold he trusted

Reclusive 69-year-old Walter Samasko Jr died in May and was found one month later, alongside a hoard of gold bars
When 69-year-old Walter Samasko Jr died in May he left behind just $200 in the bank and no friends or family to lay claim to the meager inheritance. 
He hadn’t worked since 1968 and was living off stock accounts of $140,000 and $25,000.
But the real treasure was found at his Nevada home, along with his decaying body, one month later after neighbours complained of a foul smell.
There officials discovered box upon box of gold coins and bars stowed away in Samasko’s garage, valued at a staggering $7 million or more.
The 69-year-old had died from heart problems, a coroner found, at least one month before he was discovered.

The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

In May 2010, Rolling Stone compiled an updated list  which was published in a special issue and in digital form. The list differs only slightly from the 2004 version, with almost all of the new additions being songs from the 2000s . While a total of 26 new songs were added, the entire top 25 remained unchanged.
The number of songs from each decade in this updated version is as follows:

Decade	Number of songs	Percentage
1940s	2	0.4%
1950s	69	13.8%
1960s	195	39%
1970s	131	26.2%
1980s	55	11%
1990s	22	4.4%
2000s	26	5.2%

global leaders are losing control

03-12 12

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Virtue is insufficient temptation.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.
Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC)
The civility which money will purchase, is rarely extended to those who have none.
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.
 Lois Hector Berlioz
The nations of the earth are mostly swayed by fear—fear of the sort that a little cheap oratory turns easily to rage, hate, and violence.
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.
Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC
Too much work and too much energy kill a man just as effectively as too much assorted vice or too much drink.
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
Awake, arise, or be forever fallen!
John Milton (1608-1674)
Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.
George Eliot (1819-1880)
Prognostication is difficult... especially as regards the future
Mark Twain
Teach him to think for himself? Oh, my God, teach him rather to think like other people!
Mary Shelley (1797-1851)
Where large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody.
Agatha Christie (1890-1976)
Habits change into character.
Ovid
Wit is educated insolence.
Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC)

My argument is that War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge, keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal, and do well.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
The best morale exists when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it’s usually lousy.
 Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States
Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
 I gave enough to my children so that they could do anything, but not so much as they could do nothing  
Warren Buffet  
The popular idea that a child forgets easily is not an accurate one. Many people go right through life in the grip of an idea which has been impressed on them in very tender years.
Agatha Christie (1890-1976)
 No affectation of peculiarity can conceal a commonplace mind.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)
Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nation's greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)
Cruelty is the law pervading all nature and society; and we can't get out of it if we would.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
 The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
Oscar Wilde
Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC)
Capitalisation is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse, and helping your uncle jack off a horse.
Prognostication is difficult, especially as regards the future.
Mark Twain
I can resist everything except temptation.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.
Bill Gates Microsoft co-founder, philanthropist
Even in a minute instance, it is best to look first to the main tendencies of Nature. A particular flower may not be dead in early winter, but the flowers are dying; a particular pebble may never be wetted with the tide, but the tide is coming in.
Gilbert Chesterton (1874-1936)
We have no right to distress any of God's creatures without a very good reason.
Anna Sewell (1820-1878)
Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
Sun Tzu (544 BC-496 BC)

0212

The Tin Woodman knew very well he had no heart, and therefore he took great care never to be cruel or unkind to anything.
L. Frank Baum (1856-1919)
Friendless, adj.: Having no favors to bestow. Destitute of fortune. Addicted to utterance of truth and common sense.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
Novels so often provide an anodyne and not an antidote, glide one into torpid slumbers instead of rousing one with a burning brand.
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
The fortunes of war more than any other are liable to frequent fluctuations.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)
A just fear of an imminent danger, though there be no blow given, is a lawful cause of war.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the others willing to let them.
American poet Robert Frost

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VHkcsXwY6HoQLiK3vpRaV3bjLBs9nw3zKtDbKo2BmN8/pubchart?oid=1&format=interactive

0112

“Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”

“One who is too insistent on his own views, finds few to agree with him.”

Lao Tzu

We should make Russsia a better place to leave.

All things are admired either because they are new or because they are great.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Uranium sacrifices of Iran,

or Israel burns.
A magnetic bomb was attached to the car by two motorcyclists, Iran says  US has condemned the killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist in a car bomb attack in north Tehran. National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said the US "had absolutely nothing to do" with the attack.

Chinese airlines warn they will refuse to pay EU carbon tax

China's four major airlines – national flag-carrier Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China southern Airlines and Hainan Airlines – are represented by the CATA Photo: Doug Kanter/Bloomberg

By Peter Simpson, Beijing 05 Jan 2012

Beijing said it has deep concerns over the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which came into force on New year's Day and demands all airlines pay a green duty to offset carbon emissions.

"China opposes the European Union's unilateral legislation. China has expressed to the EU our deep concern and opposition many times on a bilateral level," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.

Mr Hong urged Brussels to hold urgent talks with Beijing over the controversial carbon allowance scheme, which has also met strong opposition from other countries.

The China Air Transport Association was more militant in its response – declaring its members would not co-operate with the ETS and refuse to pay the added tax.

It also said it would seek legal action and try and attempt to form an international alliance to scrap the scheme.